WHEELING — The Wheeling University women’s rugby team – due to multiple player suspensions and the firing of the team’s head coach Ken Pape due to internal discipline issues – has withdrawn from the National Collegiate Rugby Division I championship match scheduled for this weekend.

That withdrawal has also led to NCR suspending Wheeling University’s women from the postseason for at least two years.

NCR made the announcement in a Wednesday release. The organization did not specify the discipline issues that led to the withdrawal.

NCR approached the other semifinalists to fill the finals spot opposite Southern Nazarene University, but ended up inviting Northern Iowa to take Wheeling’s place.

“Wheeling’s untimely departure created a profoundly difficult situation for everyone involved,” s

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